Biomedical subjects

Tor Helge Holmås

Publications and source records attributed to Tor Helge Holmås.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Access to primary health care and health outcomes: the relationships between GP characteristics and mortality rates.

This paper analyses the impact of economic conditions and access to primary health care on health outcomes in Norway. Total mortality rates, grouped into four causes of death, were used as proxies for health, and the number of general practitioners (GPs) at the municipality level was used as the proxy for access to primary health care. Dynamic panel data models that allow for time persistence in mortality rates, incorporate municipal fixed effects, and treat both the number and types of GPs in a district as endogenous were estimated using municipality data from 1986 to 2001. We reject the significant relationship between mortality and the number of GPs per capita found in most previous studies. However, there is a significant effect of the composition of GPs, where an increase in the number of contracted GPs reduces mortality rates when compared with GPs employed directly by the municipality.

Aged↗

PubMed2005

A panel data study of physicians' labor supply: the case of Norway.

Physicians are key personnel in a sector which is important due to its size as well as the quality of service it provides. We estimate the labor supply of physicians employed at hospitals in Norway, using personnel register data merged with other public records. A dynamic labor supply equation is estimated using a sample of 1303 male physicians observed over the period 1993-1997. The methods of estimation are GMM and system GMM. We reject the static model in favor of a dynamic model and obtain short run wage elasticities around 0.3. This is higher than previously estimated for physicians, in particular for those who are not self-employed.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Wage policy in the health care sector: a panel data analysis of nurses' labour supply.

Shortage of nurses is a problem in several countries. It is an unsettled question whether increasing wages constitute a viable policy for extracting more labour supply from nurses. In this paper we use a unique matched panel data set of Norwegian nurses covering the period 1993-1998 to estimate wage elasticities. The data set includes detailed information on 19,638 individuals over 6 years totalling 69,122 observations. The estimated wage elasticity after controlling for individual heterogeneity, sample selection and instrumenting for possible endogeneity is 0.21. Individual and institutional features are statistically significant and important for working hours. Contractual arrangements as represented by shift work are also important for hours of work, and omitting information about this common phenomenon will underestimate the wage effect.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

A low-key social insurance reform--effects of multidisciplinary outpatient treatment for back pain patients in Norway.

This paper estimates treatment effects for back pain patients using observational data from a low-key social insurance reform in Norway. Using a latent variable model, we estimate the average treatment effect (ATE), the average effect of treatment on the treated (TT), and the distribution of treatment effects for multidisciplinary outpatient treatment at three different locations. To estimate these treatment effects, we use a discrete-choice model with unobservables generated by a factor structure model. Distance to the nearest hospital (in kilometres) is used as an instrument in estimating the different treatment effects. We find a positive effect of treatment of around 6 percentage points on the probability of leaving the sickness benefits scheme after allowing for selection effects and full heterogeneity in treatment effects. We also find that there are sound arguments for expanding the multidisciplinary outpatient programme for treating back pain patients.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Keeping nurses at work: a duration analysis.

A shortage of nurses is currently a problem in several countries, and an important question is therefore how one can increase the supply of nursing labour. In this paper, we focus on the issue of nurses leaving the public health sector by utilising a unique data set containing information on both the supply and demand side of the market. To describe the exit rate from the health sector we apply a semi-parametric hazard rate model. In the estimations, we correct for unobserved heterogeneity by both a parametric (Gamma) and a non-parametric approach. We find that both wages and working conditions have an impact on nurses' decision to quit. Furthermore, failing to correct for the fact that nurses' income partly consists of compensation for inconvenient working hours results in a considerable downward bias of the wage effect.

Adult↗